COMBATS BETWEEN ANTS. 213 



for the passage ensued. After a time the combat ceased, 

 and all animosity subsided, each party retiring to its 

 nest, carrying with it its dead and maimed companions. 

 This encounter seemed quite accidental, and the dispo- 

 sition to move in a uniform line, which their meeting 

 prevented, the sole cause of their hostility, combat, and 

 mutual injury. The strength of some creatures, espe- 

 cially insects, considering the smallness of their size, 

 is in several instances prodigious. Man, by his reason 

 and power, calls to his aid mechanical means, and 

 other agents, to effect his objects ; but unreasoning be- 

 ings accomplish their purposes by contrivance and bodily 

 powers. The strength of these black ants is manifested 

 by the quantity and magnitude of the materials which 

 they collect for their heaps ; but the common little red 

 ant (formica rubea), a much smaller creature, gives 

 daily proofs of its abilities to remove heavy substances, 

 equal to any that we meet with. One of these little 

 creatures, thirty-six of which only weigh a single grain, 

 I have seen bear away the great black fly as its prize, 

 equal to a grain in weight, with considerable ease ; and 

 even the wasp, which exceeds forty times its own weight, 

 will be dragged away by the labor and perseverance 

 of an individual emmet. These little ants are occasion- 

 ally and profusely deprived of their lives by some 

 unknown visitation. In the year 1826, in particular, 

 and again in the following year, I observed, in the month 

 of August, a lane strewed with their bodies. They had 

 bred during the summer in an adjoining bank ; but some 

 fatality had overwhelmed them when absent from their 

 nests, and nearly annihilated the fraternity, as only a 

 few scattered survivors were to be seen feebly inspect- 

 ing the bodies of their associates. The task of removal, 

 however, with all their industry, appeared beyond their 

 powers to accomplish, as on the ensuing day few had 

 been taken away. Had these creatures been destroyed 

 in combat by rival contention, the animosity must have 

 been excessive ; but it is more probable that they met 

 their death by some other infliction. 



One year, on the 3d of March, my laborer being em- 

 ployed in cutting up ant-hills, or tumps, as we call 



